Judge Charles Henry Test was the eldest son of Judge John Test. He dictated an account of his life in 1883, only a year before he died, at the request of William Wesley Woollen, who planned to use it in a book on Indiana history."
Judge Test's Life as Told by Himself [18]
June 9, 1883
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My father moved to this country in 1810. I didn't go to school until I was some eight or ten years old maybe, but I graduated with an old fellow named William B. (Laughlin I think) who had settled out on the edge of the Indian territory. He was finely educated, could almost talk Latin and Greek.
My father while in Congress got acquainted with the Surveyor General and Wm. Laughlin got a contract to survey some lands and I went out with him. This territory was purchased in '18 and in '20 he had a contract and I helped him. I had studied surveying some with him and also a little mathematics and he thought I might be useful. That was this township including what is now Rushville. That was in 1820.
In the spring of '21 he was again appointed to survey and came here to survey this territory in which this township is included and I came with him again. We had to wait here 'till the Commissioners had located the point where they intended the seat of government to be. The government had given four sections of land to the city, wherever the seat of government should be located. Well we waited and they went way up the river and wandered around for a week and finally located the seat of government at the mouth of Fall Creek.
Then we had to survey this township so they could select the four sections of land for the seat of government. Well in wading the river here Laughlin got the ague and was not able to work and he sent me out with the boys. The Commissioners had got tired of perambulating around the country and I tried to supply his place to the best of my knowledge, but the surveying was terribly done, no question about that. The corners didn't fit sometimes but I did the best I could hurried as I was.
The sections were finally located and the Commissioners selected four sections on which the seat of government was finally laid out. Of course this was a wilderness then. My old man would not work on Sunday, in fact had been educated for a minister but by some means or other he never got into the ministry. Still he was a very rigid Presbyterian.
There was an old fellow lived across the river from where we camped near the old bridge on the bluff bank, and I started one Sunday to find the old buck. On the way I started up a fawn and managed to catch it. I thought I would hold it a little while and let it go, and finally I shoved it off, but it wouldn't go. It followed me to the old buck's and then back to the camp. We left it there when we came away.
After I got through I went up and stayed a few days with a William Conner who had just sent off his Indian wife and was living alone keeping his trading house. There were a few Indians left and what trading they did was with him. He married a Miss Vimmedge after this. He had promised to go with his Indian wife west, and was a good deal uneasy for fear the Indians would do him some damage because he didn't go.
In 1822 I got my license to practice law. I was 20 years old. The judge said I deceived him! I located in Rush County. You may say Rushville, but there was only one house there when I went there. That was owned by the Clerk of the Court. He knew nothing much about the duties of a Clerk, and he hired me to take charge of the Clerk's office, which I did. I stayed with him 'till 1824 when I was married.
I was appointed prosecuting attorney. I soon began to grow in practice. My connection with the Clerk's office had given me a little prestige and a little reputation as a lawyer. I attended to my business while the other old lawyers, such men as Noble and Smith and my father, were more politicians than lawyers. While they were hunting around for office and making their peace with the people I was attending to the profession and in that way got a pretty good practice, about equal to any of them.
In 1826 I was elected to the Legislature from that county and I did what the Good Being never did do--made Flat Rock a navigable stream by law! I introduced a bill, the first ever introduced in Indiana, to have property taxed according to its value, but it failed. Harvey Moore was speaker and was there part of the time. I never saw a man that could preside better than Moore. He was not much of a lawyer but was a man of fine address and presided with a great deal of tact.
Old Simmons (sp. ?) who was a member of the Senate at the time said they gambled every night, sitting up all night, but in the morning Moore would take the gavil and call to order. As soon as night came they renewed their gaming. Finally they got into a fisticuff fight and Harvey Moore got a black eye, and for a few days couldn't preside very well, but we worried through that session. There is now not a single man living except myself that was a member of this body in 1836.
In the winter of 1829 I was elected Judge of that Circuit. I presided in Rush, Union, Wayne, Fayette, and Randolph counties. I held court also at Marion in Grant County and in Fort Wayne and Elkhart. I went from one place to another on horseback. Occupied the position nearly seven years.
Once in going from one court to another several were with me, among them old Sam Samples. We stopped to rest and turned our horses out to grass. We had some liquor. Samples carried that. The rest of us didn't like to drink. Some fellow came along on horseback, and after looking the crowd over came to the conclusion we were a set of murderers and went on. We followed him up to find that he had told everyone that a set of murderers was coming. But he was surprised the next day when he came into court for lo and behold there was the same man he had taken for a murderer talking law and morality to the jury. He was a much surprised man.
Soon after that I retired from the bench. My father had gone down to Mobile and I concluded I would settle at New Orleans. I stayed there and made some $1200.00 or $1500.00 clear money, paid all my expenses, and came home. I could have made $15,000.00 had I gone back. But I thought I couldn't afford to go every winter leaving my wife and children and come home in the summer.
I went and settled in Dearborn County but just about the time I got settled they moved the County seat. That was very inconvenient for my business and I finally moved to Wayne County. That was in '39, I think. About the time I got settled up there they moved the County seat back again. But I stayed in Wayne County, practiced law there, and did a very profitable business for several years.
My health gave out and I purchased about a thousand acres of land in White County. That must have been in 1856. I was elected Secretary of State in 1849, lived at Indianapolis in the winter and didn't give up my practice in that time. I was elected rather over my own wishes. I didn't want the office. The salary was small. From what I could see I couldn't make anything out of it. I had determined to decline the office when I met old Sam Hanna. 'Why,' said he, 'Judge, I understand you don't want this office.' I told him that I did not that the salary was too small. 'Come down tonight and I will show you it is a good deal better office than you think it is.'
I did so and found it was worth about $1900.00 and I accepted. Thought I would do pretty well to make $1900.00 and I wouldn't give up my practice anyhow. I held the office four years and then went back to practice law. In fact I had never relinquished it. I was in attendance usually at the courts. But my health began to fail and I concluded I would leave the law. In the meantime I was elected to the Legislature from Wayne County. In '40 was elected to the Senate from Wayne for one term.
A man had been elected but had vacated the office by moving away. In '55 I went to White County out in the broad prairie--built a house and lived and improved it. Finally they got into a contest about the Judge then. The lawyers in LaFayette were quarrelling with each other. They didn't want anyone there and came to me. I insisted they elect someone then, but they elected me. That was in 1856. I held the office thirteen years.
I came to Indianapolis about '70 or '71. Was elected Judge of the Criminal Court the second year after I came here. Held that office two years. Then I was defeated by a little fellow by the name of Buskirk. Buskirk beat me thirty four votes. I then went back to practice law. I live now in Wheaton, Illinois. Oh, I don't consider myself as living there. This is my state and city. [19]
Judge Charles Henry Test was married twice. His first wife was a native of Kentucky, Rebecca Davis, a cousin of Jefferson Davis. She bore him five children: James, Caroline, Thaddeus, and two children who died in infancy. The Judge's second wife was Elizabeth Moore (a Quaker). Their children were Charles, Lydia, Mary, Edmund B., and one other who died in infancy. It is said that the Judge "united" with the Society of Friends in his later years.
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